I consider myself an environmentally conscious person – I recycle and reuse, I pick up rubbish and I always carry a reusable water bottle. “I can do ‘Plastic Free July” I thought, “It’ll be a easy!”. However, very soon I realised that our society is engorged and controlled by single use plastic and it’s not as easy as it seemed.
I have always been an environmentalist. I’ve spent my life doing environmental sciences, learning about waste, getting involved in clean ups and spreading my knowledge. This means I also spend a lot of my time around like-minded individuals and rarely even give this stuff a second thought because it’s just so natural. However, it’s always a disappointment when I return to my home town and see the lack of care that the ‘average’ person has for the environment. 
I’m still not sure if this is due to ignorance or just blatant laziness. To be fair, I think it is a mixture of both, as plastic use has become normal. Plastic surrounds us, it has become a natural part of our life. So much so, that it is ingrained in our being and bred into us to change our perception. I am fed up with this. Humans have the capacity of logical thought, and it’s time we started thinking about what we are doing. I want to start opening up people’s eyes and banish the ignorance to reduce our excessive plastic use. It starts with this blog.
Reducing your plastic use is about knowing where your plastic ends up.
The next step in reducing your plastic use is to realise where it goes. What happens to that plastic spoon or that coke bottle you just threw in the bin?
– A boat among the Great Pacific Garbage Patch – (http://www.cookiesound.com/)
Unfortunately, they don’t just go to a magical disappearing rubbish land. All of our rubbish either ends up in landfill, or (even after being in landfill) in our ocean. Right now, there is a large vortex of spinning debris between the US and Japanese coasts called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It’s said that 80% of these debris are from land-based activities in North America and Asia. Can you guess what this garbage patch is full of?…
That’s right – Plastic! In fact, it’s millions of tiny pieces of broken down plastic called Microplastic. This is because the ease and accessibility of plastic means that it’s being used more around the world, but also, it does not biodegrade (Well in our lifetime anyway!). The sun and elements slowly break the pieces down into smaller pieces over time. These plastics floating in the ocean eventually end up in the bellies of sea creatures. Turtles mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, seabirds see a plastic lid as a juicy fish, even fish see a shiny bit of microplastic as baitfish. Scientists studying these garbage patches have found that they cannot account for 99% of plastic in the ocean, because most of it ends up inside the ocean food web, which we are a part of. Chances are that if you eat fish, you are ingesting pieces of someones coke bottle, or plastic spoon.
Every single piece of plastic that you ever have or will use in your lifetime will still exist in this world and will outlast you.
Reducing your plastic use is about changing your perception of plastic.
The perfect example of this is the classic dog poop baggie. We all know that if you walk your dog, you have to carry around a little plastic bag or a plastic scooper to pick it up, because society deems it unacceptable to leave dog poop around. 
I’m sure, right now you’re agreeing with this and wondering what the hell I have a problem with. Well consider, that same ground your dog is pooping on could be covered in bird poo, rabbit poo, cat poo, lizard poo, fox poo, deer poo, even human poo! Poo comes wrapped in a natural biodegradable cover called air, meaning it WILL disappear. Now I’m not advocating you go out and poo on your neighbours lawn to liberate your inner environmentalist. I’m simply highlighting the fact that society has deemed that a perfectly biodegradable substance is much more appropriate when it’s wrapped in a never-biodegradable plastic bag and thrown into the bin. Have we become that precious that a piece of poo on the grass is offensive?
Can’t relate to this? How about we try a human example! Davey and I have spent some time in Borneo and we have seen the local sea gypsies take on westernized customs. One thing we have passed on to them is the single use plastic trend, and boy has it boomed! These people who don’t have toilets, who used to poop into a banana leaf and bury it, these people now poop into a plastic bag and throw it into the ocean – out of sight out of mind, right? We have changed their perfectly biodegradable toilet behaviour, and now they are contributing to the most destructive human habit on Earth – littering. We blame them, but we force our bad habits onto them to integrate more into our society.
Just because society says it’s normal, doesn’t mean it’s right.
Reducing your plastic use is about seeing plastic in everyday society.
Plastic is all around us, I mean the walls around you could literally be filled with polystyrene insulation. But they really have found a way to put this cheap product into everything, including our psyche.
- “It’s Aunty Bev’s birthday, we better take some balloons around for her!”
- “I should put these few items into a plastic bag so it doesn’t look like I’m stealing.”
- “I might spill my coffee when I walk, so I should put a lid on my takeaway cup.”
- “I can’t be bothered making dinner tonight, let’s just order takeaway Thai food.”
- “I can’t ruin my lippy, I should grab a couple of straws for my drink”
These are things that are just so natural to us now. Plastic is everywhere in our daily life and it seems we can’t escape it, or we don’t want to because it’s actually harder to not use it. When you’re at the shops, you don’t even get asked – your groceries are automatically placed into a plastic bag (or 4!). Walking around the grocery or fruit stores, everything is conveniently packed into plastic grab bags.
Sorry Woolworths, but I have to name and shame. This one in particular frustrates me, similar to the dog poo issue – fruit has evolved over hundreds of years to encase itself in a perfectly covering biodegradable skin. Why do we need to them wrap it up in plastic? Are we too lazy to pick out our own apples?
– Plastic lining inside a paper cup –
Plastic even hides itself within seemingly recyclable objects. “It’s okay to buy a takeaway coffee cup because it’s made out of cardboard.” Sure, but did you know that these takeaway cups are actually lined with a thin plastic to keep it ‘leak proof’. So, these cups cannot be recycled with paper and cardboard. What about having a nice cup of Earl Grey in a porcelain cup – Nothing wrong with that? Well… Actually tea bags themselves are made with a type of fluffy plastic to keep them somewhat rigid.
We have become a single use society.
Reducing your plastic use is about knowing the alternatives.
This is one of my favourite posters because it basically describes this issue with single use plastic. During this process they also add plasticisers (chemicals to promote flexibility). Some of which are listed as possible carcinogens. Plastic not only damages the environment, it will ultimately harm us too.
What has happened to paper bags, and using our hands? It is very difficult to go completely plastic free, simply because most things you buy from a supermarket will have some form of plastic in it. However, there are some easy ways to reduce your plastic use.
In the Supermarkets:
- It makes me happy to see that large supermarkets are getting involved with #banthebag and are planning to stop plastic bag use. Paper bags would be wonderful to bring back in.
But likely this will mean that we have to invest in some reusable cloth bags and even mesh bags for fruit and veg shopping. The old excuse is that you always forget them – keep them in your car and you will always have them with you. If it’s just for a small ‘last minute’ shop, then simply use your perfectly functional hands to carry the shopping to your car. Don’t worry, no one will think you’re stealing. I do it all the time. Or just use the cardboard boxes that fill the shelves. You’ll get a few odd glances when you start unloading the Maggi noodles packets to use the box they are sitting in. But it’s totally worth it! - Try not to buy pre-packaged meals and attempt making them yourself from raw unpackaged ingredients.
- Keep an eye out for unpackaged goods like loose-leaf tea and loose nuts. Use mushroom bags when collecting these things to avoid small plastic bags.
- To escape plastic packaging, look around for local farmers markets. Although it may not be as close to your home as Coles, it will be worth it for the experience and the reduced plastic packaging. Farmers markets are full of amazing local produce and friendly faces.
When you’re out and about:
- To create a plastic bottle it takes a lot of energy and materials, and it could cost you $3650 a year to get your 8 glasses a day!
Buy yourself a reusable water bottle and it will pay for itself. - A reusable coffee cup is a great purchase if you’re a regular coffee drinker. Keep it in your bag or your car so you never forget.
- In the US, 500 million straws are used every single day. It seems innocent enough to have one straw in your vodka, but that’s enough straws to wrap around the Earth 2.5 times each day. To avoid being part of this disposable fad, simply request ‘no straw’ with your drink, or invest in a reusable straw. Again, carry it in your bag and you will never forget it!
At home:
- Instead of using cling wrap, try and make your own beeswax wraps out of material (something I plan to do!). Or if you need something a little more sturdy, you can purchase stainless steel reusable containers.
- Plastic bags to line bins can be a hard thing to ween yourself off. All you need is to get into the habit of washing out your bins. You can also line the bin with layers of newspaper to protect it. Newspaper can also be used to pick up your dogs poo (if needed).
- If you purchase some simple, natural ingredients, you can create your own toiletries and place them in reusable glass jars. If you’re not feeling very creative you can buy shampoo/soap bars wrapped in paper. Lush is very good for this.
- Replace your daggy old plastic toothbrush with a super hip-looking bamboo toothbrush.
- For the ladies – During our periodic lifetime we can use as much as 16,000 disposable products, most of which could take up to 100 years to degrade. Periods are bad enough without feeling bad about plastic use. A menstrual cup is the way to go! I have just purchased one and have nothing but praise.
There are many more plastics you can easily cut out of your life. Once you start, you will start to see the plastic all around you!
You may read this and think that I’m a crazy hippy, or maybe you can relate to my frustrations. All I’m hoping is that you can read this and take with you a little bit of knowledge about plastic use. Start to think about why you use so much plastic and where you can cut it out of your life.
For the planet, for the oceans, for the animals and for our future.
#don’tusestraws
Jas 🙂
*Featured image taken from photography by ‘A Rucksack Revolution‘ (https://danieljnewcomer.wordpress.com/2014/11/30/to-be-thankful-for-trash-waste-photography-of-reggio-calabria/)
Away and the Bay 